Skip to main content

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • The Collection
  • Projects & Publications
  • Past Exhibitions

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Image

Previous 1 / 1 Next

Keith Coventry

White Abstract: Wedding Kiss, Charles and Diana, 2001

Description

Maker

  • Keith Coventry, b. 1958, English

Title

White Abstract: Wedding Kiss, Charles and Diana

Year

2001

Medium

Oil on canvas, gesso, glass, and wood

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • glass,
  • wood,
  • gesso,
  • oil paint

Supports

  • canvas

Dimensions

80 x 64.8 cm (31 1/2 x 25 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signed and titled on stretcher bar: on top stretcher "K. Coventry 2001; on left stretcher- "Wedding Kiss Charles + Diana"

Type

  • Paintings

Credit

Richard Brown Baker Fund for Contemporary British Art

Object Number

2008.41

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Made in the UK

September 23, 2011 - January 8, 2012

The Figure

March 12, 2010 - March 3, 2011

Keith Coventry’s White Abstract: Wedding Kiss, Charles and Diana transforms an iconic wedding photograph of Prince Charles and Princess Diana into a white monochrome abstraction. The photograph, the only one ever taken of the Prince and Princess kissing in public, created a scandal in the face of aristocratic decorum. Coventry explores the tension between traditional values and contemporary society by employing the language of abstraction, referring in particular to Russian Suprematist paintings by Kazimir Malevich or the more recent white paintings of Robert Ryman. The work depicts iconic aristocratic imagery, but by limiting his palette to white, Coventry drains the represented subjects of any blood or life, and suggests the waning political and symbolic strength of royalty.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in Copyright. This object is White Abstract: Wedding Kiss, Charles and Diana with the accession number of 2008.41. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

RISD Museum

  •  Facebook
  •  Twitter
  •  Instagram
  •  Vimeo
  •  Pinterest
  •  SoundCloud

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Secondary

  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use